June 9
Withholding taxes from people's paychecks began JUNE 9, 1943. Congress passed it as an emergency measure to get money to fight Hitler during World War II.
The idea came from Beardsley Ruml, treasurer of Macy's and chairman of New York's Federal Reserve Bank.
Called the "Pay-As-You-Go" tax, it was part of the patriotic war effort which included slogans: "Uncle Sam Needs You," "Buy War Bonds," and "Fight the Axis-Pay your Taxes." So much money came in with so few complaints that it continued even after the war ended.
John F. Kennedy told Congress, April 20, 1961:
"Introduced during the war when the income tax was extended to millions of new taxpayers, the wage-withholding system has been one of the most important and successful advances in our tax system in recent times.
Initial difficulties were quickly overcome, and the new system helped the taxpayer no less than the tax collector."
President John F. Kennedy explained in his Special Message on Taxation, April 20, 1961, how taxes expanded during World War II:
"In meeting the demands of war finance, the individual income tax moved from a selective tax imposed on the wealthy to the means by which the great majority of our citizens participate in paying for well over one-half of our total budget receipts."
But Americans were not always taxed. In his 2nd Annual Message, 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"We are able, without a direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing, to make large and effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker...
It is an encouragement, fellow-citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have begun in substituting economy for taxation."
President Andrew Jackson stated in his 8th Annual Message, December 5, 1836:
"There is no such provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it equally or unequally among the States or the people.
Indeed, it is not probable that such an idea ever occurred to the States when they adopted the Constitution."
In his Message to Congress, May 27, 1830, Andrew Jackson said:
"Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent Providence our country is blessed with general prosperity and our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which other less favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear."
John F. Kennedy described his stimulus plan, November 20, 1962:
"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now...
Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan stated:
"I believe we really can, however, say that God did give mankind virtually unlimited gifts to invent, produce and create. And for that reason alone, it would be wrong for governments to devise a tax structure that suppresses and denies those gifts."
Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com
Withholding taxes from people's paychecks began JUNE 9, 1943. Congress passed it as an emergency measure to get money to fight Hitler during World War II.
The idea came from Beardsley Ruml, treasurer of Macy's and chairman of New York's Federal Reserve Bank.
Called the "Pay-As-You-Go" tax, it was part of the patriotic war effort which included slogans: "Uncle Sam Needs You," "Buy War Bonds," and "Fight the Axis-Pay your Taxes." So much money came in with so few complaints that it continued even after the war ended.
John F. Kennedy told Congress, April 20, 1961:
"Introduced during the war when the income tax was extended to millions of new taxpayers, the wage-withholding system has been one of the most important and successful advances in our tax system in recent times.
Initial difficulties were quickly overcome, and the new system helped the taxpayer no less than the tax collector."
President John F. Kennedy explained in his Special Message on Taxation, April 20, 1961, how taxes expanded during World War II:
"In meeting the demands of war finance, the individual income tax moved from a selective tax imposed on the wealthy to the means by which the great majority of our citizens participate in paying for well over one-half of our total budget receipts."
But Americans were not always taxed. In his 2nd Annual Message, 1802, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"We are able, without a direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing, to make large and effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker...
It is an encouragement, fellow-citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have begun in substituting economy for taxation."
President Andrew Jackson stated in his 8th Annual Message, December 5, 1836:
"There is no such provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it equally or unequally among the States or the people.
Indeed, it is not probable that such an idea ever occurred to the States when they adopted the Constitution."
In his Message to Congress, May 27, 1830, Andrew Jackson said:
"Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent Providence our country is blessed with general prosperity and our citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which other less favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear."
John F. Kennedy described his stimulus plan, November 20, 1962:
"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now...
Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan stated:
"I believe we really can, however, say that God did give mankind virtually unlimited gifts to invent, produce and create. And for that reason alone, it would be wrong for governments to devise a tax structure that suppresses and denies those gifts."
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, April 20, 1961, Special Message on Taxation, April 20, 1961. Public Papers of the Presidents-Containing Public Messages, Speeches & Statements of the President, (Wash., DC: U.S. Gov. Printing Office.) Jackson, Andrew. May 27, 1830, Veto Message to Congress. James D. Richardson (U.S. Representative from Tennessee), ed., A Compilation of the Messages & Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, 10 vols. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published by Authority of Congress, 1897, 1899; Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature & Art, 1789-1902, 11 vols., 1907, 1910), Vol. II, p. 489.
Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com
